


You Smell Like My Walter!

by Myst222007



Category: Original Work
Genre: Damsel in Distress, F/F, Lesbian, Non-Consensual Tickling, Nudity, Peril, Public Nudity, Tickling, aspercreme, cfnf, lapsitting, naked female, nude female
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 21:59:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17333120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myst222007/pseuds/Myst222007
Summary: All sexy young Erica wanted to do was go grocery shopping. Little did she know, the pain cream ointment she was wearing would evoke memories of the dead husband of an Old Woman....





	You Smell Like My Walter!

**Author's Note:**

> This was written by one of my writers who goes by "Anonymous" under the original title REMINISCENT (with one tiny edit by me for clarification). Enjoy!

REMINISCENT  
Erica was just at the grocery store, as she usually would be.  
It was another typical day. Her life wasn't super crazy, but she had a pretty nice one you could say. First of all, she never really wanted for anything. She had everything she could possibly need, plenty of food and drink in her fridge, a workout mirror (since she was perhaps a tad obsessed with fitness), and a nice house to package it all up in.  
Perhaps the only thing that she was really truly missing from her life was an ever present companion. Yes...sometimes it did feel a little empty. She had a nice house, typically modernized considering the price that she had paid for it, but sleek and comfortable nonetheless. The interior was decorated with pine, nesting style furniture, and some wicker stuff that she'd bought handmade. Things like the waste paper basket in the bathroom, or the chairs that sat out on the patio and made for good seats when the weather was nice and sunny.  
To boot, her garden itself was pretty lush. Well kept, and she didn't grow any flowers mostly because she didn't have the time, but there was a nice expanse of light green grass and a pool to swim in. The only downside to having something like that was having to clean out all of the fallen leaves and algae by yourself...that or hiring someone to do it for you. Generally it was her presence to do the former, it kept her nice and fit.  
She did have somebody in her life, her fiance. The only issue was that he was so busy a lot of the time that he didn't usually spend much of the day with her. Now it was understandable of course, both of them had their own lives and commitments to attend to, but really, it was a bit of a pain when she wanted to take the day off and do something with him, and he simply didn't have the time to do it. He would claim to be busy but she often wondered just how true that actually was.  
Was he really busy? Or was this his way of ignoring her somehow? She hoped not, they seemed to get along well enough, and everything was solid and good in a romantic sense. She just worried about these things sometimes...what person didn't? It was natural to get suspicious now and then, and at the end of the day she knew one thing for sure- that being that she liked him, and she trusted him, and that he really was trustworthy. Her friends and his friends, her family and his family, they knew that much to be true.  
They were meant to be together. They just had their own commitments to attend to.  
That was part of the reason why she had taken up exercising as much as she did. It had started out fairly simple of course. In the beginning, it had been a mild hobby at best. She would watch the odd yoga show on TV, or DVD if she happened to pick one up for a bargain with her grocery shopping, and then, she'd follow the motions. A little lazily though, perhaps.  
Then, it grew into something consistent. One day she would be working out just through watching a simple little show like that. Then she would get the idea to perhaps sign up for actual classes, take this commitment to the next level or something. It was through that line of thinking that she began taking yoga lessons.  
Yoga couldn't keep you at peak physical condition though. No, it was too easy, too relaxed, too focused on meditation and what people called 'zen'. Or even the 'art of zen', but 'zen' wasn't what she was seeking here. She wanted to actually be fit. She wanted to be strong and capable, if only because it felt amazing to be that way. To know that you could take the lid off even the tightest jar, and not even break the slightest bit of sweat on your forehead.  
Head to Foot Pose, Peacock, Sphinx, Cat and Cow, Downward Dog...  
Being a yogi had its benefits, sure, those couldn't be denied. She certainly felt very rejuvenated after every session, but she didn't feel like she had become strong enough yet. She wanted to be able to run miles and miles just to pass the time when her fiance wasn't at home.  
So, she started doing just that. Every day she would allocate the time he was absent, and the time when she happened to be at home and waiting for him, to instead running laps around the neighbourhood. The other people who lived in these fairly wealthy suburbs came to see her as something of a regular. Dark brown hair always scraped back and tied into a tight, long ponytail. A sky blue tank top that she was always seen wearing. She greeted everybody with a smile too at least, always.

They started to get used to the sight of her, and she too started to get used to the sight of them. On her rounds she could pick out every familiar detail.  
There was the mailbox at the Hendersons, where letters were stuffed to the brim. They still needed to empty that out, didn't they? Those were all letters for their son, who was at university, and so they were probably junk, but still it would be a shame if they got soaked in any rain.  
There was the lopsided child-sized go kart that you could pedal with your legs (well, if 'you' were small enough to fit into the thing), always abandoned on the grass for weeks now. She didn't even know who lived in that house, was it abandoned?  
All these little things she came to recognize...they were like creature comforts for her. She enjoyed them a lot, and she enjoyed running a lot too. You could strike up a perfect balance, even on a typically hot day. You'd think you would get too weary and bogged down in sweat from the heat, but no, it was fairly easy to cope. When you ran fast enough, the air picked up around you and turned into a cool breeze. It was only ever an issue if the air itself was too warm.  
Yet as fun as running could be, she eventually grew a little bit tired of doing it every day. Given that she was always seeing the same sights, and that she couldn't venture much further than the suburbs considering she would just end up on a busy highway, she was at a little bit of a loss.  
No, she had to change tact and pick something new yet again, that seemed to be the key. Hence why she decided to go for new classes, only this time they were not yoga oriented. Rather, they revolved more around, well, actual really tough work. Like martial arts, kickboxing specifically. And to cool down from that, she opted for a dip in the pool that accompanied those class rooms at the gym.  
Because she had already dedicated so much time to fitness and keeping herself primed, she was already more than a little prepared for these challenges she had to face. She fought hard when she was sparring in her kickboxing classes, and swam fast when she was doing laps in the water filled lanes. She was just completely dedicated to strengthening herself, it felt rewarding, it truly felt like she was taking good care of herself and she loved that.  
After she had done all of these things on a daily basis, she felt like she could just relax and wind down with the company of the one who she loved the most. Her beloved fiance.  
Life was good...  
However, it was also filled with plenty of commitments. She couldn't just spend her time exercising all day, and just lounging around at night without taking care of things. Given how he was so often out of the house, as old fashioned as it was, she often ended up being the one who had to do most of the chores. It didn't especially bother her though, she couldn't say that. She honestly appreciated the fact that it was another way of keeping herself fit and doing something that was productive. When she did cleaning around the house, it truly became spotless.  
She was perfect wife material in that sense.  
That being said, she also had to do shopping at the local grocery store. That could be a bit of a tedious chore. Never mind running around the same neighbourhood for the billionth time, and seeing everything you already knew so well again, things never really changing...beyond that, she couldn't think of anything more repetitive than going to do some shopping at the grocery store, every week, and usually for the exact same thing she always needed.  
Hence why she was there every week looking as bored as she was, it seemed to be a little bit of an inevitability in that sense. It was too monotonous for her taste. Why couldn't it be even just a little bit more riveting? That would be nice...sadly it wasn't the case.  
Instead, she just fetched everything she needed, as always, and got on with it.  
This was a repeated thing. Too repetitive for anyone's liking, never mind just her own. She needed something to spice things up.  
Though then again...perhaps this was one of those 'careful what you wish for' scenarios.  
...  
One day, she was busying herself with another round of shopping. She wandered into one of the aisles, looking for something to ease her pain.

Yes, pain. It was quite the complicated thing actually...circumstances that you might not have expected. She had been kickboxing when the injury had happened, but it was far from conventional. She hadn't been hurt by any attacks from her opponents, or even poorly handled defending on her own side. No, rather she had ended up being hurt because she simply pulled a muscle.  
Yes. That was all. It seemed geriatric even, like hurting your back just from walking up the stairs or something. She resented the fact that she had become injured like this, because it meant that she wouldn't be able to exercise properly for a good long while. And if she couldn't exercise properly, well, how else would she distract herself from the loneliness she felt when her beloved wasn't around anywhere?  
Well, it led to now, where she was sort of struggling to get around the store because her joints were so sore. She supposed she only had herself to blame for this, but it was still really annoying, she didn't like it at all.  
Passing through the fresh produce aisles, she glanced around for some sort of natural remedy.  
Bananas? Who actually buys bananas?  
Berries could be the key, and there is that old saying about apples and doctors?  
While she sorted through and picked up various items, she couldn't help noting how expensive it would be if she resorted to all of these natural remedies. It was like browsing through a health foods store. Prepare to set your wallet on fire, that was pretty much the equivalent of it.  
It was a little embarrassing, but she actually recalled tips she had heard for arthritis. She was a little bit young to be worrying about that sort of thing, but it would possibly help her out, right? Even just a little bit...maybe it was worth a go.  
Cabbage helps with cartilage, I remember reading that somewhere. But it's not that great, is it? Salmon can be good, but it's way too pricey, even by my standards...  
Cherries? Could they help. But Citrus fruits will make it worse, won't they?  
She felt like a bit of a fool, not even knowing these things. She was a grown adult, with her own house and wedding plans on the horizon no doubt, and yet here she was, confused by fruits and vegetables. Because quite obviously, this was all rocket science.  
“...I give up.”  
Eventually she had to admit that it wasn't worth buying boatloads of ginger when she could instead just buy an official product. It would do the same job, probably better.  
So she instead sauntered over and along through the medical section. Tubes, bottles, sachets and protein bars all sat there, vitamins and supplements intermingled with powerful paracetamols. Some other people were milling about nearby, but nobody was really taking too much notice of her presence. She picked out a tube of something suitable and read the ingredients.  
Concluding that it seemed safe enough for her to use (there probably wasn't anything in here that would burn her skin away), she added it to her basket.  
Now of course, it was kind of a common practice to dig in to something you were planning to buy while you strolled along and around the store, as long as you actually did end up paying for it. She'd seen many customers, usually with children, putting empty packets on the checkout counter, the cashier running them through with a beep regardless of the contents being completely gone. Again, it wasn't technically stealing if you decided to eat your pre-made sandwich while browsing the cereals section.  
However, she wasn't planning to eat anything, nor was she planning on popping pills for any particular reason either. She just wanted to get this tube of cream and see if it worked okay for her. Just a small sliver, that was all she wanted, kind of like spraying a little bit of perfume onto your wrist.  
Deciding to abandon her basket, Erica went towards the ladies toilets with a tube of the stuff tucked in behind her belt. It was very sketchy, but she honestly didn't care so much about that. She just wanted the pain to go away, even just for a moment.  
Once she was safely locked inside one of the toilet cubicles, she felt fine to pull out the tube of ointment and open it up properly. Lathering it onto the areas where she felt the most discomfort, she didn't realize that she had essentially just doomed herself to smelling like an old person for the rest of the day. She only noticed after the fact that it kind of had that weird sort of scent to it, but she decided not to let it bother her. After all, she could already feel some relief coming, and that was the main thing. She'd soon be fit as a fiddle, right?  
Supposedly. Yet as she wandered out of the toilets again and picked up a new basket, she was a little bit self conscious. Usually one would have expected a sporty girl like her to smell like deodorant or even a bit of perfume. Sweat was best avoided, even if unfortunately common. She was just worried now that she smelt like none of those things, and rather gave off the first impression of just having stepped out of an old folks home.  
Good thing she already had a fiance. Good thing she wasn't trying to lure any prospective partners in this place (apparently that was another strangely common practice), as whoever would approach would have to be a fan of that old person smell.  
Most people weren't, except, perhaps, other old people. But that seemed like such a far-fetched thought that it didn't even spring into her mind.  
At least...not until the inevitable.  
Carol was an old person. She certainly was, but she didn't just bumble around all hunched over like Quasimodo. No, rather, she had a spritely sort of quality to her. A spring in her step, so to speak, and that was something that her friends rather liked about her too. It was rather important not to let old age get you down, after all. The last thing she intended to do was to become some sort of boring old sod who sat inside and read books, maybe playing the odd board game at times. Not that there was anything wrong with either of those things, but she knew a few peers who only ever did them...little else beyond that.  
She preferred to get out there and see the world, it proved to be a lot more fun. Meeting new people, having new experiences, these were all fun and productive things, were they not? There was no use in anything else...if you hid yourself away you'd never really achieve much, unfortunately.  
On this particular day, she was also shopping for some goods at the grocery store. There were of course services that you could hire, people you could call and forms you could fill out to ensure that you actually got meals cooked and delivered for you. But again, she felt like it was simply a loss of experience to do something like that.  
“Hmm...”  
She too was browsing the shelves, wondering what to buy. She only had to buy something for herself, but still, she often ended up purchasing in excess. Turns out there was such a thing as too much chocolate. Too much everything actually.  
Luckily she didn't feel lonely. She knew how life worked, how death worked, and it was something that she had accepted a long time ago indeed. There was no need for her to worry anymore, only a need for her to keep on chugging along and making the most of her days. Hopefully she would have many yet to come.  
Yet she too was unaware of how this particular day would pan out. While she was looking through about a billion different kinds of rice you could buy, she suddenly perked up, straightening her back and looking around herself. At first, it was almost like a sixth sense. A sensation like there was something familiar nearby...something she knew so well, and yet she couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was.  
Carol paused for a moment, before returning to what she had been doing, initially assuming that it was just her imagination. In your older age, not to say that she was too old, mind you, but in your older age you did start to imagine things more often. Not in a good way, it was mostly a memory issue. She would sometimes tell her relatives all about an event that had transpired, only to realize halfway through the story that, actually, it had never happened at all.  
Funny thing, wasn't it?  
She kept on shifting through the shelves until finally, she sensed it again. This time though, it wasn't through any sort of subconscious manner. No...she picked up on a scent in the air...a scent that seemed very familiar indeed. Ah! That's what it was!  
Her late husband, Walter!

Excited then, not really thinking logically about what it might actually be, she hurried away from the shelf and instead went off in search of the scent. At first she carried her basket with her, but eventually she set it down on top of another display just so it wasn't slowing her down at all.  
She hummed and started to traverse between each section of the supermarket as if she were in the midst of a labyrinth. She looked and looked, fascinated, curious, really wanting to find whoever it was that smelt like that.  
Meanwhile, Erica was blissfully unaware of the elderly woman who was gradually advancing on her elsewhere in the store. It was like one of those horror games where you never really knew where the enemy was, but you were certain that they were always pursuing you. Though whether such a sweet old lady could be called an 'enemy' was somewhat...debatable.  
“Hmm...” she too, hummed and haaed as she decided what to buy next, filled with a little more vigour within herself now that the pain was starting to subside. That ointment might have smelled kind of funky, but it did work at least, and that was worth it.  
Soon though, she sensed somebody coming along, and she glanced around before humming. Maybe she imagined it? She got back to searching the shelves.  
Little did she know that Carol was coming. The old woman advanced closer to the young lady, as that smell she knew so well started to get stronger and stronger. It was definitely coming from here.  
Erica was about to turn around and get on her way, before she heard a sweet natured voice speaking: “Oh honey! Pain relief cream...You smell just like my Walter used to!”  
“Huh?”  
???  
She glanced to her side, and spotted an older woman there. She wasn't a really old lady, but she was old enough to sometimes think she imagined things. Yet of course, in this circumstance, she hadn't imagined anything at all. No, this was definitely real. This smell was definitely a reality, even if it didn't actually seem to be coming from Walter. It was coming from this young woman instead, but Carol didn't quite see clearly in that moment.  
And a part of her wondered if...maybe he'd somehow come back to her?  
Who's Walter? Her husband? Ah-!  
Suddenly, things became quite inappropriate indeed. This once simply curious older woman now wrapped both of her arms around Erica, and leaned in closely. She inhaled deeply, giving at least a clue as to why she was doing such a thing, but still, the younger lady was left absolutely stuck to the ground, completely struck with alarm. This went beyond bizarre. People didn't just walk up to other strangers and do this sort of thing! They didn't!  
“Walter! At first I wasn't sure, but it must be you after all!”  
And all this 'Walter' nonsense...the woman kept murmuring that name as she hugged onto the other woman, and she didn't let go for even a single second. Carol came to realize that yes, this was absolutely Walter. At first, when simply approaching the woman she had almost seen clearly and realized that it was just someone wearing a cream that happened to smell a tad on the geriatric side. But one more whiff of that stuff and she had fallen for some kind of trick.  
She didn't see Erica standing here. She saw her long lost love, Walter.  
For Erica it wasn't quite like that. It was a bother for her, really. She was already aware of the fact that people were watching them, kind of outright staring at proceedings as they were taking place. It was more than a little bit messed up that this woman thought she could be so clingy with someone who she didn't even know in the first place, but at the same time, Erica was in a bit of an impossible position. If she didn't want to get attention drawn, she ought not to start struggling and yelling at this lady.  
Besides...this didn't seem so much sinister as it was just delusional.  
Regardless, Erica had no idea what to say. She didn't know what to do either. How was someone supposed to approach a situation like this without causing more fuss or just coming across as outright rude or cold? Nobody wanted to be seen insulting another person, hurting them at all, or to even do it in the first place if they had any heart to them. And Erica did. She was hardly mean by nature.  
She had to do something...  
She was at a loss until she just decided she should, simply...walk away. Yep, just take her leave. Surely this lady wouldn't insist on hugging her still if she was walking away from her, right? It would just be too weird to carry on latching on to someone if they were moving and quite visibly trying to get away from you...as if all of this wasn't already so weird in the first place.  
Regardless, she started to motion away from this stranger who she didn't know at all. She hoped that whoever this woman was would get the hint, and you know, back off completely? That was what she wanted the most, that was what she needed.  
Yet even though she tried to walk away, things didn't quite work out like she had been hoping. She did attempt to get away, but it was pretty much to no avail in the end. Carol was actually quite a bit stronger than most people would give her credit for. Back in the day she had been a bit of a fitness freak herself too. Walter and herself actually used to exercise together.  
“Come on now, you don't have to go yet. Walter honey, it must be you, hm?”  
Erica intended to give her a pseudonym at first, but she ended up blurting out her real name accidentally. “It's not Walter, actually, it's Erica!”  
Shoot! She wasn't meant to do that, and now this weird old lady knew what her actual name was. She wasn't sure what the connotations of that would be exactly, but she didn't want to face any consequences anyway. Reluctant, she wanted to avoid her or something, but it was beyond the stage where she could.  
She couldn't really rely on social etiquette when things had got this far. She needed to say something, and she needed to say it now. Fast.  
“Could you please get off me?”  
Now, not to make a joke of elderly people, nor to trivialize what they possibly had to deal with on a daily basis but...the only thing she could wonder was if this lady could answer one question for her, following that beg on her own part:  
“Are you deaf?”  
“Mm, yes just like him! That's what he always smelled like every day, so it must be you after all dear!” the woman seemed more than happy to just continue hanging on to the young lady like there was no issue with it. She almost seemed to be totally delusional, as if she was completely absorbed by what she wanted to do, not what was actually socially acceptable in this situation.  
Erica couldn't shake her off. She was like a bad smell, ironically, even if she didn't smell bad at all. She clung to the girl like it was her life's purpose, and things only got worse as Carol seemed to succumb to whatever innate desires she had. They were not sinister, nor poorly meant. She only saw this as having fun, and thought that it was completely normal. Why wouldn't she? Walter never had a problem with anything like this, they were married for 40 years!  
To say that Erica was more into people her own age was an understatement. This lady was perhaps on the cusp of elderly age, not quite as old as she had initially assumed (though she sure did act like she wasn't all there), and she had a nice face, a pleasant voice. Erica had a few friends who might have wanted to hook up with someone like this, but, no offense, the cougar town wasn't really her thing. Nor was chasing money either. It wasn't just a case of aesthetics, it mostly came down to having approximately nothing in common.  
Either way, she was only further baffled as the lady started to remove her (*Erica's) clothes, right there in the store. It was like Carol was completely oblivious to her surroundings. The people once milling about casually in the supermarket had now stopped to stare, having never seen something like this taking place before, and poor Erica felt, frankly, quite helpless in the moment. What was she supposed to do!? Did this woman not realize what she was doing!?

No, it actually seemed that she didn't. Erica did yell for her to stop on more than a few occasions, repeatedly demanding:  
“No! Quit it, stop! We're in public, you don't know me!”  
She didn't feel like it was of any use though. Carol just went ahead and did it anyway.  
“Of course I know you honey! I've missed you so much!”  
Erica had only been wearing a tank style top here, and her jeggings coupled with trainers and white socks underneath. Nothing that exciting, something sporty that she knew she could go running in anytime she was taken by the fancy. Carol removed all of those things, even her shoes, and they ended up being tossed aside across the floor.  
Clothes now scattered, Erica flushed and squirmed while Carol just embraced her and held her hands on her sides, groping her somewhat yet not really seeming to mean anything bad by it. She had such a serene smile on her face, as if she didn't fully know what she was doing, she just knew that it felt right and good in her own opinion.  
It was clear to Erica then. Carol wasn't a fool by any means, she seemed stable enough. But whoever 'Walter' was, well, she could safely assume that he wasn't around anymore. Old couples usually came in pairs, you know? Leaving someone you loved alone at home only became riskier and riskier with age. So she figured she could assume that Walter was dead and gone, and now Carol was alone.  
Neediness, probably, but also a faint glimmer of hope that she could reclaim what she had lost again, based only on the scent of some pain relief cream, believe it or not.  
This old lady was...kooky.  
“Nope! I'm leaving, sorry!”  
Erica had enough. Well enough. Sure, this was all innocently meant, and she could appreciate that. But no way was she just some jigsaw piece to fill a desperate void that was left behind by whatever pain relief smelling man Walter had been. She had to cut things short right here and now, for both their sakes. It wasn't fair on either of them, or on Walter's memory she supposed, to let things carry on.  
The fact that she was naked in front of maybe ten or so people no longer registered with her. She took a fight or flight mentality, and had to adopt a mixture of both at the same time. To fight back, she pushed her hands down firmly against Carol's arms, finally seeming to snap her somewhat out of her stupor. The old lady recoiled some, and watched her with surprise. Her face looked so innocent, Erica could tell she really had no idea how badly she was behaving here.  
“Look, I don't know you, and I don't know who Walter was, but I'm not him!”  
Carol blinked a few times. Erica's words weren't really registering. Maybe there was a bit of hesitation for just a moment...as she wondered if it wasn't him?  
But the longer she was around this smell...yes...she had started to see Walter instead, truly. Why would she ever think that it wasn't? Sure, she had lost him, but he had simply come back to her.  
“You smell like my Walter! Hey!” she called after the girl as Erica forced herself out of that grip with the strength that she had (which was hardly laughable mind you) and hurried off throughout the store, trying to get away from the old woman who was now chasing her. She did manage to grab some of her clothes, but ended up dropping them accidentally.  
“Damn!” she turned her head, almost going back to get them again, but when she saw the lady running with open arms and beaming:  
“Oh baby I missed you!”  
-She just turned around and kept on going.  
Internally, she was at a total loss.  
I don't blame this old woman. I'm trying to be reasonable and understanding here...I wanna feel bad for her even, she must be lonely if she's so desperate to get Walter back. But I'm not Walter! I'm a married woman, why would I hook up with someone like this? Josh would hate me forever...  
He's not into cougars, is he? Though I guess this isn't technically a cougar scenario.  
I look like her late husband or something to her. Hopefully she realizes I'm not, and realizes soon!  
Panting repeatedly, Erica rushed out into another aisle, close enough to where the doors were. The supermarket

shoppers were left stunned, gasping and covering their mouths and eyes as they watched her running past. A few people stared, but whatever, she could take it as a compliment she supposed. Either way, she knew she had to get the hell out of here before anything worse happened.  
A.k.a, being taken back to this lady's house. She knew she wouldn't be hurt or anything, this was obviously just a ridiculously massive misunderstanding...but she also didn't feel like being caged up in some old lady's house for the rest of her days.  
“Can you please stop chasing me!? Geez! I'M NOT WALTER!!”  
Too bad that no matter what she said, the lady didn't listen. Eventually, she ended up taking a wrong turn while trying to get around the tills, and ended up running right into a wall of plastic wrapped DVDs marked up to supermarket prices. Spinning around quickly, she saw that Carol was already there. The woman just laid a hand upon her own heart and giggled.  
“Ohoho...even at your age you're still so spritely! You don't need to be so shy, but I understand. We can go back home-”  
She seemed a little feverish and desperate for love again, that explained the whole stripping somebody off in a public setting thing. Now that things had slowed down again, Erica covered herself, beet red with embarrassment. She really hoped that nobody had been scarred when seeing her running around like that. It wasn't to say that she was hard to look at, far from it. But it probably wasn't what anyone needed to pay witness to on a Thursday afternoon.  
“Honey, it's me, Carol. You don't need to look so alarmed.” the elder woman, still clearly deluded, dragged the kicking and yelling lady with her, not seeming to realize how much of an issue this was. She hugged her and stroked her sides as she escorted her to the car, before urging her into the seat.  
Wincing as she tumbled inside, Erica let out a frustrated sigh... This was going to be a long haul, wasn't it?  
...  
Forget Formula 1 drivers. Carol peeled off out of there like the speed of light, so fast they may as well have been on a journey to the future. Erica kept trying the door handle repeatedly, and would slap the woman's hand away whenever it came out to feel her side.  
“Oh you!” the 5'6” lady would simply laugh, oblivious, and joyously observe the road ahead. “You've never been so shy before!”  
Right. Was Walter the kind of guy who would just get naked in a supermarket? That took a certain degree of boldness that even someone confident like Erica felt like she couldn't muster.  
Carol eventually ended up hauling her over by her wrist and onto her lap. Erica was smaller by comparison, 5'3” and very light, so she fit neatly on top of Carol's thighs. The older lady just kept one hand on the wheel and tickled her around the sides, making Erica gasp and burst out laughing.  
“Ahahahaha!! Wait, Carol stop!” she wheezed tearfully, unable to resist the hilarity this brought her. Tickling was a funny thing (fittingly), even when she was desperately trying to get out of this situation she ended up smiling.  
“Wait! Wait you should actually stop--” she tried to wrestle with Carol's hands as she noted they were probably not being safe right now. Of course it would be a plus if a cop happened to see this and pulled them over, as it would give her a chance to get away. But it wouldn't be such a plus if they ended up careening off the side of the highway together. Carol might end up being reunited with Walter that way, but it would probably be a bit on the tragic side, no?  
I should have just picked a different pain relief cream. Dammit...  
“Carol be careful! Watch the road—ahaha!!” Erica was cut off by her own laughter as the woman just danced her fingers around her hips. Weirdest day of her life this was, no doubt, by far.  
Carol just peeked over the top of her shoulder at the road ahead, not caring that she actually had both hands off of the steering wheel at this point.  
“Oh it'll be fine Walter dear! You always said I was a good driver, now let's just have some fun!”

Did he!?  
Well, even if Carol had a lot of confidence in her non existent driving skills right now, Erica definitely didn't. She forcefully grabbed the wheel with both of her hands, sacrificing her hips to the tickling and groping that was going on and just dealing with it, red faced and all. It actually felt kind of nice, but not so nice when you considered two factors:  
1\. Carol didn't even know who she was feeling up right now. She probably would have felt no affection beyond a little smile towards who Erica actually was.  
2\. Josh was going to hate her for this if he ever found out. It felt like she was cheating!  
“Phew...”  
At least, she managed to avoid an accident.  
Still, disaster came in many forms, and in this case it was being forced into the home of this woman who was such an uncomfortable stranger. She was too much to deal with, and Erica was only left so struck by shock as she ended up stumbling into the lounge. It was honestly like a weird situation from a fever dream. And it was also like walking into a time capsule of course.  
At least the place was well kept. It wasn't as modern as she would like for her own abode, but it was as comfortable and cozy as you might imagine. Still, she didn't want to be here right now.  
“That's great, now we're home. We can relax and have more fun! Ah, I've missed you so much!” Carol smiled and clasped her hands together eagerly, before holding them out with a mischievous look on her face. “Come here honey!”  
Erica backed away, shaking her head and holding her own hands up like Carol was a cop holding two guns at her or something.  
“Look! I know you mean well, but I'm not Walter. I'm not Walter in any capacity, we've never met! I don't know who he is, and I'm definitely not him myself!”  
She turned to go but Carol quickly embraced her and stroked down her sides again, before encouraging her to come to the sofa in the lounge. Naturally Erica tried not to, but it didn't work. She was just forced down into Carol's lap, and she was tickled yet again. She went completely crimson and started laughing and gasping in alarm. It was the weirdest thing she had ever gone through, hardly regular at all.  
She collapsed into a fit of giggles, and Carol seemed to just think this was a good sign and everything. She thought this was Walter, he always used to like this kind of thing. It was just crazy how they were both on completely different plains right now, and yet they were so close to each other at the same time. Insane, insane indeed.  
This carried on for some time. When Erica tried to get up and scurry off like a mouse into another part of this rather large house that she had, she didn't get too far before she was seized again and tickled more. She had never laughed so much in her life, she was so short of breath after every tickling attack that she just had to struggle along with a lack of stamina for sure. She did her best to keep going though, hurrying towards one of the closets in the upper floor.  
Once she was in there, she tried to calm down and regain some energy again. She felt like she was in some sort of honestly real cartoon. She was like the mouse, Carol was like the cat, and neither of them could communicate with each other properly about what they were actually thinking.  
On the one hand, you had Carol. She just saw her as nobody but her precious Walter. She wanted to make up for all the time that had passed since they had been with each other last, and also make the most of this moment in case it was just a passing moment and in case she might end up losing him all over again. She honestly didn't know what the reason was behind Walter being back, she only believed that he was, so she didn't question it at all.  
And Erica of course was just completely baffled by all of this. She just wanted to get it through to this lady that she wasn't Walter after all, and even if all this tickling was making her giggle, she would much rather have someone like Josh doing this...and even then she probably would have rushed away too. She didn't cope very well with being touched around her sides and tickled, especially when she wasn't wearing any clothes as a barrier. It was like a bit of a challenge for her to deal with all of that.  
She sighed and sank down to her knees in the closet, wondering what she was supposed to do. She needed to get

out of this house of course, but she felt like it wouldn't be that simple. Her mobile phone was back in the pocket of her jeggings, and they were lying on the floor of the supermarket. So it wasn't like she could just pull it out of nowhere and call him back, now was it? Unless she could just magic a new phone up out of mid air.  
She couldn't do that, but she did remember seeing something when she had run upstairs to hide from the old lady. She glanced through the slits that were cut into the wooden closet door, and peered out across the landing, blinking a few times since the light that was shining in through the large window was stunning her somehow or something.  
When she could focus her vision again though, she noticed that there was a phone sitting on top of the table that was there. Just a small hexagonal table, carved out of tan wood, with nothing but a corded phone sitting there. It was clearly something simple, something basic, and yet in that very moment, it looked like a pure and hopeful beacon of light.  
She wanted to get out of this closet and grab that phone so she could call one person, her fiance. Or the cops. She would call the cops, but she didn't know where she was, and if they tried to track her it would only take a lot longer. She held her breath and bit her bottom lip, hesitating.  
No, calling him was the better thing to do right now. She pursed her lips again, then decided that it was a now or never kind of moment. Though Erica did bother taking a few glances each way out through the gaps into the door, she observed to try and see if Carol was anywhere nearby. It seemed like she hadn't even come upstairs yet. At the very least, Erica couldn't hear her at all right now.  
So she then proceeded to do her best and just dart out of there. Flinging the closet doors open, she shot out like a bullet from a gun barrel and hurried in something of a blur over to where the phone was sitting. She grabbed it off the receiver, and she was just about to lift it up to her ear and reach out to press all the numbers she of course, remembered well, for her beloved Josh.  
She felt like she could rely on him to help her and make things better again, that he would be able to take her with him and get her the hell out of here. He always knew the best thing to do. He was so reliable.  
When she had been younger, she had never dated much. It wasn't like she couldn't date anyone, she was definitely a desirable type of girl. Cute and pretty, sweetly natured and friendly too of course. He loved her, and she loved him, and she wanted to make sure that they could be together, absolutely. Forever, that was what she wanted the most. For the moment though, they were apart from each other, and that in and of itself was kind of tragic in a lot of ways.  
Anyway, at the moment she was definitely in need of help. Yet she didn't seem to notice then as she lifted the phone up to her ear, that she was being approached by someone. Someone in particular who she had been trying so hard to get away from.  
Carol wrapped both of her arms around her body, and then slid her hands back a bit along her skin, just so she could rest them upon her hips and keep them there for quite some time. She kept feeling her up a little bit, and smiled innocently, not knowing what the hell she was actually doing. Or at the very least, how Erica actually felt about this.  
“Walter honey, who are you calling?”  
Erica flushed and wriggled around a little bit, still not used to this crazy approach that this older woman was taking. She couldn't exactly call Josh right now when she was right there, could she? It was a little bit hard for her to deal with.  
“So um...let me explain-” she hesitated at first, really not sure what to say. It was difficult, it was hard for her to explain what she was doing right now to this woman. “I have to say...I'm just...calling a friend.”  
“Oh! Is it someone I know?”  
Erica didn't know how to answer that. She was kind of lost and baffled here about what she was supposed to do. She gripped the phone a little bit harder in her hand, her grip trembling, her knuckles turning just a little bit white with the pressure of her grip. This was a lot for her to deal with. She didn't really know exactly what she was supposed to do here, nor what she was supposed to say in response to this woman.

“...Just a friend. I mean, I've been busy.”  
“Busy, where have you been?” Carol asked, still hugging and nuzzling her from behind. Erica grimaced. Yeah, she really didn't know what to say now.  
It seemed that she was maybe just making things a little bit harder right now. ...  
Josh was a pretty hard worker. An office kind of guy, so he had set hours which someone like Erica didn't have to worry about. It was alright he supposed, he felt a little bit bad when he was still away from where she was, out of his own home, leaving her alone for a stretch of time. Hours really, when he knew that she wanted to spend time with him instead.  
It was kind of a necessity honestly. He had to keep working hard. He had to keep doing everything that he needed to to make sure that they could keep everything that they had so far. It made sense that he would do something like this, because what he had with his beloved girl was perfect and pleasant.  
She was quite special to him. More than a little special, she was precious. He wanted to make sure that everything was nice for them both, and that they could pretty much just live however they wanted to.  
Anyway, for the moment today, it was just average. It was what he was always used to doing, it was what he needed to do. It was very monotonous, sure, and he did sometimes fantasize about just dropping all of the paperwork, dropping his suitcase and all that kind of stuff, just abandoning it all and saying 'screw you' to his boss so that he could sweep Erica away with him out of there towards whatever random destination they wanted to go to.  
Maybe somewhere cliché, a tropical island with grand swathes of sand. Somewhere that they could just dive into warm waters beneath a big golden sun, and enjoy themselves more than a little bit. That was what he craved, and he was pretty certain that she was probably craving it too. It was kind of inevitability that he would eventually want to get something like that in his life.  
He had no idea what had been happening while he was at work. He had been told by Erica in the morning that she was going to go to the supermarket and pick up some groceries for the two of them. Simple enough, there was nothing suspicious about that, was there? He certainly would never have assumed that what had ended up happening to her would happen in the first place.  
Josh was blissfully unaware of the fact that she had been sat upon the lap of a stranger and tickled for the duration of a more than dangerous car ride. He really had no idea at all what was happening right now. He just wandered over to the water cooler and turned the tap and filled up a plastic cup. He drank some of it and sighed, leaning his back against the wall.  
He took a sip casually, before noticing one of his coworkers, Derrick, coming over near her and smiling noticeably. He had a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.  
“So, what's up? You're always here buddy, doesn't your girl get lonely? Or is she with someone else now?” Josh just rolled his eyes and sighed. “Yeah, yeah, right.”  
He hummed as he said: “Okay, maybe not. Hell, I'm proud of you. I wish I had that kind of life.” he shrugged. “Maybe I'll hook up with Suzanna.”  
“Suzanna? Dude, she's like...sixty years old.” Josh looked across at him with some suspicion, clicking his tongue. He could hardly take that seriously.  
“Pssht! Hey, older ladies are hot my dude. More experience, they've done a ton of stuff in their lives, reliable. Money too, that doesn't hurt.”  
Josh didn't get it. He was more than happy to be with Erica. He was in love with her, and that would never change, he was certain of that.  
“Well, each to their own I guess.”  
He eventually headed home to where he always loved to be. And as he stepped in through the front door, he was expecting to see her. Yet he was quite surprised when he got in because he didn't see her there. He was quite alarmed to see that the place was empty, devoid of any energy at all.

She wasn't here. And that was more than a little bit unusual. He was used to her being here. He was quite surprised. This was alarming too.  
“Erica? Hey! You here!”  
He hummed as he went around through the house for a bit, trying to find her. He was quite surprised again too when he went upstairs and still didn't find her there at all.  
What was he supposed to do now? He hummed, before deciding to do the smartest thing, what really made sense. Pulling a phone out of his pocket, his phone of course, he tried to phone her.  
And there was no answer initially. So, he tried again. This time, somebody did pick up:  
“Hello? Erica??”  
“No, are you related to the owner of this phone?”  
Turns out that she had dropped it in the supermarket along with all of her clothes, and somebody had kindly gathered all of those and handed them in. People reported seeing her running around nude being chase by some grabby old woman who she didn't seem to know, and who kept screaming 'Walter' to her. As this was explained to him by the rather sullen sounding clerk, he felt like he was in some sort of a crazy dream.  
How could any of that have happened? How could it be possible? It went beyond all reason to think...that she was in that position right now?  
In the hands of an older lady who had presumably kidnapped her? People, these people, they stupidly hadn't called the police, but he decided that he would. Of course he would.  
He needed to save her.  
...  
Back in the not so comfortable home of Carol, Erica was still being chased around. The house was pretty big (this lady was obviously pretty wealthy- maybe partly in thanks to Walter 'moving on'?), and so she kept on running into new corridors that she had never seen before.  
When she reached a new one she was startled and alarmed. It was like every moment she thought she might be able to get out, she would end up getting trapped or something. Well, she just had to keep going and trying. What she found was a dead end actually, and she turned around and gasped as she saw Carol was already there.  
She just came for her again and hugged her, tickling her and feeling up her sides as well. She gasped and giggled as she was tickled yet again, turning more and more red with every time that this happened. She did try to run again but Carol was already chasing after her. She had to try and get away and actually get out of this house. It was difficult to figure out some sort of out.  
Now she really wasn't sure what to do because she hadn't been able to phone Josh. He would obviously get home and see that she wasn't there (well, presumably), but what if he didn't know where to go from there. What if he didn't know how to find her? There might not be enough clues to where she was right now. He might not be able to figure it out.  
She would probably be fine. She would just be stuck, being felt and tickled by some stranger who thought she was her late husband. All she could do was just deal with it she supposed.  
...Maybe she could get used to it. Yes, she wanted to hook up with Josh for a more long term sort of matter. She just wanted to secure this love that they had with each other. Marry him. Be with him forever.  
It was all that she could hope for.  
Now though, it seemed that maybe she would have to remain a partner for Carol now. Forever pretending to be Walter or something. Carol would certainly want that of course, it seemed inevitable that she would. She just wanted to be with him, but it seemed that she would be with Carol forever now.  
She was already just starting to give up, honestly. She didn't know if there was much else that she could do beyond this. She didn't want to hurt Carol by fighting back roughly or anything, she just kept on running and darting around the house to avoid her.

Here she was, giving up hope, as she just had to sit down on Carol's lap again and endure some more of that tickling that had already left her so breathless.  
Yet little did she know that Josh was getting ready to come and save her. He knew that she was in trouble somewhere, and he was on that, stat. He gathered as much information as he could, finding out where she had gone, what she was doing. What kind of situation she was in.  
He had to help her. He knew that he did, and so he gathered every scrap of information that he possibly could, until he figured out where she was. So he rushed to go and help her as best as he could. He was going to get her back home today.  
Carol leaned against her back and sighed out softly and happily.  
“I'm so happy. I have missed you for so long, I've wanted to be with you again for a long time.”  
Erica looked down at her own lap then, as she was sitting in Carol's. It was weird to have this lady resting her hands on her sides like this, holding her so closely to her.  
She felt bad. She did, she knew that she ought not to considering that Carol had caused so much trouble for her. But...she did feel for this lady, because she was definitely in need of some sort of companionship. The fact that she hadn't come to terms with the fact that Walter wasn't here anymore was just very obvious through the actions that she was taking.  
Erica kind of wished that she would feel better about things. She obviously couldn't stay here as some sort of proxy for Walter, but she could at least hope that Carol would feel more content soon enough. Either way, she sighed out softly and started to accept that maybe she would be stuck here, helping this old lady cope with her subconscious loneliness, perhaps forever.  
Then there was Josh, who was hurrying on his way. He finally found where the house was. It was kind of an impressive place, but it wasn't where Erica was meant to be. He pushed his way inside after running up the path to the front door and finding, miraculously, that it was open. Perhaps Carol trusted that her beloved 'Walter' wouldn't try to run.  
Well, when the door suddenly swung in she was startled, and Erica shot up from the couch along with her. They both ended up standing with wide eyes before Josh, who came up to them both, looking baffled, looking a little angry. His fists clenched as he glanced between the both of them, really not sure what to do at all.  
“Woah...um, okay, can I ask you this? What the hell is going on here?” he looked over at Erica with a worried face. “Erica, what happened? Why are you here? What did she do to you? Why are you NAKED!?”  
His eyes only widened drastically, cheeks turning bright red. This looked really bad, huh.  
Erica was a little torn. She didn't quite know what to tell him. She didn't know what to say, because where could she possibly begin?  
Mostly, she was just concerned about Carol. Yeah, none of this had been right. But in this moment, the older woman looked so startled and worried that she didn't know if she could bring herself to put her behind bars. “...Ah...look, Josh...I mean...Carol-”  
She decided to just turn and look over at the woman first.  
This was going to take a bit of a bold move, but she just took her hands in her own and smiled.  
“Carol, I need to go now.”  
“But, Walter? Walter, who is this man?”  
Erica sighed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “He's not here. I'm not Walter, and I will never be Walter. But...anyway...listen.”  
She forced a wider smile, just so she could really get her point across. “You'll find somebody else.”  
Hopefully that reassurance would work. She ended up taking her leave then, hand in hand with her one true love, Josh. As they left the house, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her so she would feel more comfortable. “Man. Why didn't you leave sooner?”  
“Hah, trust me, she's faster than she looks.”

Erica felt like she could probably joke around about it. It had been quite the bizarre occurrence. Hopefully though, Carol would find her real 'Walter' again.

*Editor's note for clarification


End file.
